Epic DnD - Scales of War

4e Scales of War as Released by WoTC

5/29/12
Gwen finally showed up. She was following Rhonin’s directions on how to get to us and got distracted by a butterfly who tried to drink some of her beer. Gosh, she tells terrible jokes! She ran in through the door, swigged some whiskey and did a little jig. I think she was trying to be threatening, but Rhonin says she needs more practice. Alan knocked him prone, but wizards are dangerous and he still attacked us and was awfully hard to hit. We knocked him down and proceded to try to pound him into the ground, but he escaped us by flying and we had to chase after him around and around the shop. He had a nasty magical attack that made most of us attack each other. Fortunately, Rhonin was not affected by this! I missed Darla, Darla hit me and bloodied me, Alan attacked Darla but missed. Wizards are so annoying. He took Gwen down and I had to heal her, finally, once he was not influencing my actions. Gwen finally took him out! We knocked him out and tied him up for questioning. (+350 xp)

Brandus was wearing the Mark of Ynoghu. Plainly he was up to no good. We woke him up and questioned him. Hermonius is dead, still having been hit by a cart. The Sixth Starfall, an adventuring company, was active during the plague wars and has recently been brought together under the Mark, which gives them extra powers. Alar Silverbow (Elven cleric of Torm), Mishan Giantaxe (Dragonborn barbarian), Zana Cardsharp (Gnomish rogue) and Kodrus Steadyshield (Minotaur Warden) are the other of the Sixth Starfall. Rhonin was incensed. Kodrus is plainly an imposter. The cleric turned them all evil. Now Rhonin wants to rescue this Warden fellow and will probably invite him to his inn.

We need to escort the people we were bringing back to Vandurant, and Natalie wants us to go after the spell-scarred who might be in the woods (Brandus sent them there to be sacrificed). A couple members of the Shields of Kilgrave come to take care of our spell-scarred.

We headed off into the woods where Brandus said he sent the spell-scarred. (We read his journals.) All of a sudden, there was this fog and I was separated from everyone else, and I stumbled into a campsite and find one of the spell-scarred.

5/22/12
(In which we meet Darla, who came through a portal to the Abyss, appearing in the area of the cells where the townsfolk were capture.) We did kill that nasty Ruinlord. And we kept slogging around, battling little demonic guys. Rhonin took a great deal of damage in this fight, as is his usual habit. I healed the 8 townsfolk that we rescued, and Tychos went looking for a book, which, I guess, is where he was looking for the cure, and he found Sikulis’ Journal. Riven said it was a book of ritual variants from the Plague War.
Alan helped us get back through the barrier this time, and councilor Bufus met us back at town. 900 xp; 450 gp. 12700 total xp. (Common L2, Uncommon L, uncommon Waist slot L+1 (one of))
We returned to Elturel. Elturel, now that I had time to figure this out, is the capitol of Elturgard.
One night when Alan was studying the journal the rest of us were at a bar, one where Rhonin gets extra drinks, which is now most of them. There have been fights breaking out lately, especially among the spell-scarred, who are unjustly being treated as second class citizens and generally abused and persecuted by the fearful people of town. Tychos sent for us to meet him at the Misty Griffin, HQ of the spell-scarred paladins who were kicked out of the Order of Torm. He had a task for us – keeping watch on the persecuted people who are leaving town. Natalie, who is helping them, won’t speak with current or former P’s of T or even Tychos.
We cleaned the slurs from her office and she let us in (password “darkened sky” Vandurant in Scornubell) and we agreed to help escort a mother and child to Scornubell. We got there okay, it was a rather bustling river city, and Vandurant was an exotic rug salesman. Next stop: Hermonius, in Verdusk. Password: “Molten Sea.” H is a mage in Verdusk, which was yet another merchant port. But at his shop, he was not there but some other guy was in the shop – Brandus Thoughtspell Mage and Expert. Brandus….was an impostor!

5/8/12
The boundary was a blue wall of fire that we had to get through. I ran through and grabbed Rhonin with me, and we all became somewhat spell-scarred. I became somewhat translucent (Milestone). This place was weird, like a desert full of undead guys attacking a paladin. (Wisp Wraiths, spell-scarred mages, skeletons and a bone-shard mongrel.) Rhonin saved me from a huge attack from one of the mages. After a good slogging we defeated them all.
Tychos thinks Torm brought us to save him. He said we were in The Barrens, the 100th layer of the Abyss. He said he was here to rescue the people, and he thought he has found a cure for spell scars. The citizens, as he called them, were across the water, as we were on the shore of a river that runs through this desert. Off we went in the boat. Rhonin fancied himself a sailor. Riven seems to be a very handy sorcerer or warlock, as the case may be, in a fight.
We crossed to find a ruined cathedral buried in the sand, apparently an old Temple of Torm. Tychos thinks it represents an alternate future of our world. We wandered in and found some little tiny demons playing cards and a lot of closed, locked, portcullised doorways. We also heard chanting and tortured screams. Manes, quasits, guardian ruinlord (tentacle thing). Blood, desecration, and so on. I didn’t want to waste time pussyfooting around and in so I crashed the door down. They were torturing the townsfolk most horribly. The ruinlord drained life from the people to bolster himself during our battle….

5/1/12
We chased after Sarshan, and it was a trap – we fell through a portal and found ourselves in Elturgard. Whee!
Heroes needed due to attacks against town and Torm worshippers by the Order of the Blue Flame. We head off to the makeshift pub. There were lots of injured and suffering, a lot with problem related to spell plague. Councilman Bufus wants us to help against this spell plague and attack, specifically looking into a quarantined area of the city where a meteor hit a warehouse. 15 people have gone missing recently. Tychos is a spellplagued paladin who entered the sequestered area and has not been seen since. They want us to go into that area and see what we can find out about Tychos.
As we approached to climb over the walls and in, these giant rats threw down a barrel full of blue burning spell-stuff. (We found out later it was not the rats, but I think the rats would make a better story.) (Then we found out it was a spell plagued ox. Or at least an ox with a spell plagued wagon. Now that does make a good story!) (Silvertongue called it the “Cow-ta-pault.”) After more battle we spotted a spell plagued carp, which Rhonin was sure must be the mastermind of this group, but I thought the spiders were more annoying. *Rod of Distortion +2 (to Riven Duskmoure who came in to tag out Adara) 11500 xp + 300 = 11800

4/17/12
We headed back toward Overlook and Ironfell to tell him what occurred at the Lode. We stop at Dunes’ End to tell them Queen Shephetiah was dead and also her tax-collector, and they gave to us a Seeker Weapon (sold…636 gp each). We help out the Happy Beggar with rebuilding; Rhonin goes to see Khalad and decides (on my suggestion) to put his house on the market and look for an inn that needs some work. He keeps inviting people to stay with him, and we keep dropping in on him, and he has Fluffy, so an inn makes sense. Then we stopped in to see Bram to let him know about our adventures in the Desert. Alis was looking for us – Alis from Brindol, the Priestess of Ioun. She was around the market, handing out pamphlets, but Gwen and Rhonin found out that something sinister may have happened to her. Apparently the Lost Ones took her.
Silvertongue saw a suspicious elf when he (Alan) was examining the alleyway.
We did visit Bram and share with him the sad news of the mine and he will take care of sealing the rift. He gave us payment at the local Weapons Depot. There is a reward for Saughin dead or alive, Saughin being the leader of the Lost Ones.
Our reward was: 2 gems (total value 1000 gp therefore 200 gp each).
The next day was rainy. Alan created unseen servants to carry a tarp over us as we went to the old temple (Nine Bells Temple – abandoned temple of Amancor). The temple had a semicircular stairway leading up to grand double doors surrounded by a flame design. We push the doors open, and Alis was there, bound and gagged. It had rained in the temple. Rhonin and Gwen ran in, and it seemed there were people behind the frescoes. Saughin also stepped out from the darkness. Alan floated Alis outside, but the rest of us were caught up in battle. I swear the gods were against me today, as I could not hit anyone. Rhonin and Gwen and Alan beat up on Saughin, and the rest of the kidnappers ran off. Saughin had 500 gp (100 each).

We killed an air elemental. Then we invoked the elements and Rhonin called up to Morodin, which opened the door to a large room that has a chess puzzle of sorts. Rhonin continues to annoy us with regaling Gwen with random statements that are supposedly “Warden Wisdom,” such as “Wardens know things,” and “Wardens can’t spell.” We found ourselves on a giant chessboard with limited kinds of movement. The enemy Queen became a naga and spat poison and was truly obnoxious, and meleed about much. There was much knocking down of people and chess pieces, but I did finally give Queen Shephataya the killing blow.
The room after was then full of Dwarven skulls, but there were scrolls. Queen Shepataya was apparently trapped in here, but killed many Dwarves during her imprisonment. She found a portal leading in here, and there is a rift here, and it looks as though they have looted out the Lode and sent it all to the elemental plane of chaos , which is great misfortune. I got a Primordial Ring (Daily Minor Resistance 10 variable until end of encounter or 5 minutes; after a milestone it becomes 2/encounter) Rhonin found a signet ring. Otherwise we got some gold, gems, and magic items, but no art. (Total: 800 gp, 1000 gp of gems (360 gp each); Scroll of Protection x 2 (Alan), Doppelganger Armor 2 (Gwen); Elven Battle Armor +2 (Rhonin); Potion of Clarity; Lifedrinker Weapon +2 (2 d6 necrotic on crit; Drop enemy to 0, I get 5 temporary hp) – Vaxxa.

This room had number puzzles. Rhonin figured out one, Adara figured out the second and Gwen figured out the third one. They all had dials we needed to set. Then the doors slammed shut and flames leaped out and coalesced into a Huge Fire Golem. We had the choice of trying to operate the console or kill the Fire Golem. It looked really large at first, but I guess it wasn’t really all that big after all. Well, it wasn’t all that tiny either, but it could have been worse. Alan and I got set on fire, although it was sorely damaged when I breathed ice upon it. The trouble was that as it moved all around, it set the room on fire. Rhonin taught Gwen that “Wardens know that fire is hot!” He is full of wisdom! Gwen and Silvertongue also set into action a hose of water that shot out into the room to put out fires. It was very warm and steamy in there. It was also a very long (and hot) battle. I was badly burned, but I took it out in the end, doggedly running after it and striking it over and over and over again with my Word of Diminishment.

Puzzle room – I didn’t write it down, but it’s a poem thing and the answers are Water, Fire, Air and Earth. The little teeny hammer seems to be a key, and it looks like we need a diamond and an anvil as other keys. Rhonin opens the first door, and the room is full of water with fish swimming in it. And sharks. And some kind of big aquatic monsters that spit jets of water (Archer Fish). Thank goodness I was on the synchronized swim team at Felicci! Quote of the day from Ian, “Because my bow is better than his spitting!” And then we were beset upon by an Aboleth Plaguewhisperer. Fortunately Ian and Umril and Nekkar all showed up this time. Second quote of the day: Adara says, “We’re going to take a nap after this.” Alan replies, “You mean we’re going to sleep with the fishes?”

Sharks bite really hard. But when they were dragged out into the air, they vanished. Magical fish. In the basement. In the desert. I suspect K&H again. Could be worse; they could have been in the attic instead. Thank goodness Ian and Alan could shoot at things from outside the doorway. Although the archer fish were most annoying and shot back at Ian. Adara was knocked down and Alan had to pull her free, or rather, his Unseen Servants did. Nekkar finally finished off the Aboleth, much to everyone’s relief. Gwen killed a water elemental by swimming to the surface and teleporting to switch places with it. Then, when they were all gone, Rhonin tapped a block with his hammer, it moved and the water started draining out. Just fancy! We did it the hard way. Typical.

We then walk into a large room with huge stone tiles. The first one turned green when Gwen stepped on it. Another square turned blue with a strange symbol on it (for the number 1). Another one erupted into a fountain of flame and several trap doors around the edge opened up and lizards popped out. It was like a great, huge puzzle room with monsters coming out of the stonework. I suspect the handiwork of K&H. After taking some damage the lizards became stiff, and Gwen, who has apparently been taking Rhonin far too seriously, picked one up and planted it like a great flag to stop a fountain of flame from going off. We figured it out, along with smacking many lizards.

Then we got into the next room and a gigantic stone guardian behind a rusty portcullis asked us to present a symbol, which none of us had. Gwen strained something trying to heave up the portcullis, and then the golem just lifted it up himself, but Rhonin promptly knocked him over and Alan placed a Fountain of Fire on top of him. We shoved him around, and Rhonin dropped the portcullis on his head, and he did some earthshaking damage to everyone around him. It was a very noisy battle. I swear my teeth are still rattling. I shattered him with a Word of Shielding, and he left behind nothing but a little, teeny hammer.

Finally we have a chance to look around the town. The gnoll called himself “The Warden,” to which Rhonin takes much offense. He was a collector of “taxes” for Shephatiah, Queen (supposed) of the Drylands. They probably only live a few days away; while the villagers have tried to follow them, no one has succeeded and returned. They think the Queen’s place is off to the south somewhere. In the desert. A few days’ worth of water away. However, we never let not knowing how to get someplace stop us from heading off in a probable direction. We’re on an adventure. I’m sure it will be interesting, no matter what happens. Also, we were joined by Gwen, who is a Warden. To make matters more confusing, Rhonin has decided he wants to be a warden and is calling himself “The Warden.”

Later…I like a good sandbath as well as anyone, but there are just so many dunes here and they are such work to slog through. We met an old hag who told us to turn back; nothing but death awaits us. Obviously, Rhonin went up to talk to her. As he did so, these things that looked like fallen corpses rose up threateningly. The hag did some sort of psychic damage, and the other things with her were Razorclaw Shifters. It took much slogging to do this battle. Gwen took much damage. She is a show off who dances as she fights. I think she would do well against the ninjas. We dispatched them eventually. Everyone else thought this was an ambush, and they had come from not very far away.

Just over the next dune we found ruins, perhaps the Ruins of Fortress Ironfell!!! What could be here? A puzzle! We figure it out and the secret door opens…